Summary

The article provides a guide for improving writing on Medium, focusing on both craft and popularity.

Abstract

The author of the article, a beginner on Medium with modest success, shares an 8-step guide aimed at enhancing writing quality and readership. The steps include writing about trending topics, crafting compelling headlines, structuring articles effectively, presenting logical arguments, incorporating emotional appeal, creating engaging introductions, delivering impactful conclusions, and ensuring visual appeal. The guide emphasizes the importance of combining logical and emotional elements, studying rhetoric for persuasive writing, and meticulously crafting each part of the article to captivate and satisfy readers.

Opinions

The author believes that good writers are akin to chefs, focusing on the art of writing, while popular writers are like short-order cooks, quickly tapping into trends for wider reach.
Headlines are considered crucial for an article's success, competing not only with other articles but also with social media and other digital content.
The author suggests that understanding the strengths and limitations of different article structures is key to effective communication.
A clear logical argument in writing is seen as necessary to mentally satisfy the reader and support the article's call to action.
Emotional appeal is deemed equally important as logic, with the author recommending the study of rhetoric to enhance persuasive writing skills.
Introductions are vital for maintaining the reader's attention after the headline has captured it, and they should be crafted with care.
Conclusions should tie back to the article's opening themes and foreshadowing, providing a satisfying and enlightening end to the reader's journey.
Visual appeal is not to be neglected, as the presentation of the article contributes to its overall impact and ability to compete with other visual content.

The Madman’s 8 Step Guide to Writing Better on Medium

A plebe’s advice to himself

Photo by Khashayar Kouchpeydeh on Unsplash

There are good writers and there are popular writers. Do you know what the difference is?

Good writers possess excellent writing craft. You admire their work. They’re the chefs of the writing world. However, they don’t necessarily have a broad following.

Popular writers produce rougher prose, and faster. They’re the short-order-cooks of writing. Their strength is tapping into current trends and this gives them a large following.

I want to grow into both.

Take my advice with a grain of salt

I’ve been on Medium for four months. My most-viewed article only has 106 views and I’ve just a touch over 400 followers. All small numbers.

Since my personal experience here is limited and I’m just beginning, please understand this is the perspective of a beginner. God I hope it works.

This is my list of what I’m personally aiming at to get better at both popularity and writing craft.

1. Trending Topics

If you want your pieces to be popular, you must touch on things that are trending. These are things people are thinking about, talking about, searching for on Google.

Your piece doesn’t need to be about that topic only, but you can use that topic as an intro to your material. I like to write about evergreen topics, but I need to start using trends as an intro and hook.

2. Headlines

Good headlines aren’t just important, they’re irreplaceably essential to your article’s success. Don’t be cute. Master headline writing.

Think about this, your headline isn’t just trying to be appealing, it’s competing with every other headline in the infinite scroll, with Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and the rest of the social media world, as well as high definition pornography. If your headline isn’t first rate, your article dies.

P.S. Every sub-headline is also a headline. Same rules apply.

3. Article Structure

What kind of article are you presenting? A listicle? An essay? A classic 3-pointer? Whatever kind it is, understand the strengths and limitations of each and use them well.

4. Logical Argument

Every article has a rationale behind it, an intellectual framework. How clear is your thinking? Can you present the logical construction of your story in a way that not only makes sense but mentally satisfies your reader?

You want the rational leaps in your article to have meaning and leave your reader nodding their head “yes”. When you drop your call to action at the end, they’ll agree with you.

5. Emotional Hook and Appeal

Emotions and logic are the elephant and rider of an article. Each is very powerful in their own way. There are many ways to write emotionally. Whatever way you chose, learn how to do it well so it compliments your logical style.

I’m doing this by studying rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion by using memorable figures of speech, like this one (which is called anadiplosis):

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. — Master Yoda

A fabulous book on this I just picked up is Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric.

6. Intros that Hook

After the headline, intros are vital. They keep the reader’s attention, which was captured by the headline. You want to pull the reader into your article, one sentence at a time, and if your intro doesn’t do that, dump it and write a new one. Want a 4-minute masterclass on hooks? Study this song.

P.S. You don’t have to write the intro first. You can write it at any point in the writing cycle: first, last, or in the middle.

7. Conclusions that Boom

The headline, the intro, and other parts of the article open story loops. You’re hinting at things, foreshadowing your conclusions, stringing the reader along, just like in a good TV show or movie. Good conclusions close all these loops.

Not only do they close the loops, but they also connect directly to the opening theme of the article, and they do so in a way that gives the reader a higher-level understanding of what you mean. This isn’t easy. It means conclusions are densely packed with meaning, but that’s how Aha! moments work.

8. Visual Appeal

Whether it’s prose or verse, your writing is art. And dammit, it should look like art too. Good articles have a visual appeal to them, as well as all the other levels of appeal already mentioned.

Take the time to include a variety of visual elements: paragraph length and spacing, font sizes, font types, section breaks, and so on. Make your article as visually arresting as the models competing for you readers attention on Pinterest.

Putting it all together

Excellent articles are like unsurpassed meals in a 3-Star Michelin restaurant. They’re immaculately thought through, exquisitely executed, and perfectly presented.

This is no small feat. Not many of our efforts, or results, rise to this level. But who’s to say we can’t try? My guess is that you’d like to be better than you are right now, you’d like to move people with your words, and you’d like to make a handsome living doing it. Me too.

I don’t know if these things will work. I don’t have the data to present you with the proof.

But I do have faith that with intelligent practice, honest consistency and loyal dedication to the craft, I’ll get better at all these things, and my success will get better too.

I hope the same for you.